The World Cup was supposed to show Brazil’s cultural diversity. All it’s really exposed is the country’s deep-rooted prejudices

Remember the Where’s Wally books? They consisted of a series of detailed double-page spread illustrations depicting hundreds of people doing a variety of amusing things. Readers were then challenged to find a character named Wally hidden in the crowd.

Covering the World Cup in Brazil as a journalist, I find myself playing a similar game whenever I enter a packed stadium, only this time the question is a bit more serious. Where are all the black folk? I’ve been to five host cities so far and each time the answer was never easy to come by I’ve even missed goals while looking through the crowd.